He slept an hour, but it seemed to him that he had scarcely closed his eyes, when the trumpets were calling boots and saddles again.

Yet he felt refreshed and stronger when he sprang up, and Sergeant Whitley's advice, as always, had proved good.
The column resumed its march before mid-afternoon, continuing its progress through a silent and empty country.

The blue wall came closer and closer and Dick and his comrade saw the lighter line, looking in the distance like the slash of a sword, that marked the gap.

Shepard, who rode a very swift and powerful horse, came back from another scouting trip and reported that there was no sign of the enemy, at least at the entrance to the gap.
Later in the afternoon, as they were passing through a forest several shots were fired at them from the covert.

No damage was done beyond one man wounded slightly, and Dick, under orders, led a short pursuit.
He was glad that they found no one, as prisoners would have been an incumbrance, and it was not the custom in the United States to shoot men not in uniform who were defending the soil on which they lived.